Look for a retraction in tomorrow's paper, if they have any journalistic integrity at all. They got that part wrong; the judge would be asking for an impossibility if it was accurate.
Unfortunately, the judge may be correct.
Illegal votes -- Number of votes affected -- Enough to change result.
No election may be set aside on account of illegal votes, unless it appears that an amount of illegal votes has been given to the person whose right is being contested, that, if taken from that person, would reduce the number of the person's legal votes below the number of votes given to some other person for the same office, after deducting therefrom the illegal votes that may be shown to have been given to the other person.
It all depends on what “appears” means, and how it is determined.